Community Preservation Comes Before Taxpayers at Annual Town Meeting
By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer
Abbe Burt looks at initiatives such as the Community Preservation
Act and the Community Housing Bank, and sees important ways of
addressing the Vineyard's lack of affordable housing.
Richard Combra, an Oak Bluffs selectman, looks at the same
initiatives and sees another tax on Island residents.
West Tisbury Finance Committee Turns Up Heat on Schools, Police
By IAN FEIN
Wielding some political clout last week, the West Tisbury finance
committee assailed both the school budget and a selectmen's plan
for purchasing real estate.
The move sent town officials scrambling to address the finance
committee's concerns prior to next month's annual town
meeting.
Tisbury voters will kick off town meeting season next week when they are asked to consider restoring the Tashmoo Spring building, the 19th-century structure that served as the hub of the first waterworks system on the Island.
The article about the historic brick building is one of 12 non-appropriating articles that voters will take up at special town meeting next Tuesday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Tisbury School gymnasium. Guiding the debate will be town moderator Deborah Medders.
At Risk: Health Council Assesses Trends in Teen Behavior
By IAN FEIN
Have you ever tried smoking a cigarette, even one or two puffs? On
an average school day, how many hours do you watch TV? During the past
seven days, how many times did you eat green salad?
These are the types of questions that Vineyard students in sixth
through twelfth grade will be asked in an anonymous youth risk behavior
survey, which will be conducted next month for the first time in three
years.
Vision Emerges for Future of State Forest
By THOMAS DUNLOP
State forestry officials will meet May 24 with key scientists to try
to unify the environmental vision for how to manage and restore the
Manuel F. Correllus State Forest, the chief forester for the
commonwealth told the Gazette last week.
The state will then convene at least one public hearing this summer
to explain what the ecologists have agreed to, and find out what
Vineyarders want to see happen in the forest from both an environmental
and recreational point of view.
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank will seal its largest-ever deal today, handing over $18.6 million to Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith and officially taking ownership of 190 acres of the southern woodlands in Oak Bluffs.
Report Conveys Duality in State of Housing Crisis
By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer
Market forces continue to outpace efforts on the Vineyard to create
affordable rental and permanent housing.
Further, housing advocates say that while some people who could not
find housing in 2001 may have left the Vineyard, those who stayed likely
have watched the gap widen between the wages they earn and the houses
they hope to buy.
In recent years, 35 Jamaicans have made their way north at the start of each summer season to work at the Harbor View Hotel and the Kelley House in Edgartown.
"They have become like family," general manager Dick McAuliffe said of the workers, who tended to return year after year.
This summer, however, the Jamaicans are not likely to return to the Edgartown hotels - or anywhere else in the United States.
An innovative proposal to revitalize the upper State Road business district and relieve congestion along the main artery in Vineyard Haven was warmly received this week by residents, merchants and town officials.
Worth the Wait: Teens Transform Center to Room of Their Own
By SIMONE McCARTHY
The banter of ping-pong paddles and the whirring of foosballs
mingled with exuberant shouts and groans from the teenagers playing and
watching the games.
Others clutched sodas and munched on pizza and cupcakes while
swaying in tune with the music or conversing energetically on a big,
squishy couch.
Island teenagers left no doubt Saturday night that the new teen
center which opened up in the Cottagers Corner building in Oak Bluffs
was the place to be.
